The storefront of ComputerCorps at 4630 Highway 50 East in Carson City on April 22. Scott Neuffer/Nevada Appeal
Tuesday, Earth Day, was no different at ComputerCorps’ facility in east Carson City. Volunteers were doing what the nonprofit has been doing for more than 25 years: breaking down computers and other electronics, refurbishing and reselling (or donating) most items while recycling some.
For anyone who likes to dismantle electronics, the facility is a revelation: how the storefront with its retail glass cases gives way to a 15,000-square-foot operation replete with filing cabinets, crates, desks, tools and what seems like an unquantifiable amount of electronic parts.
“We average about a million pounds a year,” Ron Norton, ComputerCorps CEO and development director, said of e-scrap the organization keeps out of the landfill.
ComputerCorps sees up to 2,000 donated items each month. Not everything can be recycled including some plastics, but there is a market for other components, Norton said.
“We put the chips in one box. We put the hard drives in another. We put the memory in another. We put the motherboards, the power supplies,” Norton said. “We send all the metals; they go to a metal recycler. All the hard drives, all the other components, go to certified downstream recyclers, all EPA-approved.
“We work with a number of companies for the batteries. Batteries Plus takes some of them. Redwood Materials, we have a great partnership with them at times… lithium batteries are what they want.”
Scott Neuffer/Nevada Appeal Since its inception in 1997, ComputerCorps has been a nonprofit aimed at e-waste reduction but also education and training. Volunteers from all walks of life can contribute hours toward a computer of their own, use the technical experience in job applications or as a basis for further education.
The organization focuses on low-income and at-risk youth and families, seniors, veterans, the disabled and the displaced. ComputerCorps partners with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, Norton said. The facility has shelves full of emergency food, an area where volunteers can pick up take-home food and an industrial kitchen where lunches are served.
Camaraderie was apparent in the facility’s dining room April 22. While some volunteers came from challenging backgrounds, others brought extensive technical experience.
“A very broad spectrum,” as Norton put it.
Reno resident and U.S. Army veteran George Bower, 93, said he was a commissioned officer with the military’s chemical corps before designing electronic equipment for IBM, AT&T, Sony and Toshiba. He now works on data destruction for ComputerCorps, which gets a large amount of government computer systems.
Asked about his time with the nonprofit, Bower gave a simple reply. He said he likes to have “something to play with.”
Norton said the nonprofit doesn’t have a huge budget. ComputerCorps has a presence on eBay but sells most items from the physical store and often donates to community organizations. Its “Every Home ‘A’ Classroom” program works with school districts “to assure every family with school age children has an Internet-ready computer system in their home,” according to an outline provided to the Appeal.
ComputerCorps also offers computer repair. A certified Microsoft refurbisher, the organization has been helping customers deal with Microsoft switching to Windows 11, letting people know how to maintain service for Windows 10 systems.
Not into PCs? ComputerCorps works with old Macs and Apple products. Needed donations, whatever the brand, include computers, phones and cameras, printers and copiers, software and manuals, stereos and speakers, and video and sound equipment.
Scott Neuffer/Nevada Appeal In line with its educational programs, ComputerCorps runs a tech camp in the summer for students ages 9-15. Participants learn the technology and get to configure, test and take home their own computer system.
Norton described how students and volunteers learn skills and develop pride in their work.
“Our mission is to create involvement,” he said, “to let people feel they earned something. It’s more valuable to them.”
Norton, 79, said he got his start in equipment leasing in Southern California. He made the move to Carson in the 1990s to start ComputerCorps after an experience he had with his father-in-law.
“I found out I like computers more than banking,” he noted.
When Norton’s mother-in-law passed away, his elderly father-in-law was alone and having a hard time, the way Norton described it. But getting the man set up on a computer helped him connect to others and to the greater world.
“It totally changed his life,” Norton remembered. “I thought, ‘You got to do it for other people.’”
That spirit, of technology meeting humanity, is still alive. To date, more than 8,000 volunteers have invested more than 800,000 service hours at ComputerCorps, according to the organization.
For information, go to computercorps.org.